You've never participated in a beta before!?! Damn man. For every game, the stage prior to going gold is called the "beta" stage. During this period, developers vigorously test the game to make sure there are no bugs or glitches. For online multiplayer games (and other programs, like Home), developers will often send out beta versions of the program to trial users not employed by the studio, so they can test it and provide feedback.
Betas like this come in two forms, a closed beta, where only specific people selected by the dev team can get in, and an open beta, where anybody can download the software and start testing it out. There has been a closed beta of Home going on in the EU since June or so, consisting of 20-30,000 people. Sometime over the next couple of months, an open beta across all continents is scheduled to begin.
This open beta has been scheduled for months, and at TGS, Home was officially delayed to '08, but the open beta was not.
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